Album Review: Lamb of God's "VII: Sturm Und Drang"

LAMB OF GOD

*VII: Strum Und Drang*

(Epic/Nuclear Blast)

There’s nothing like a stint in a Czech prison while awaiting trial for manslaughter to motivate a heavy metal song writer. Just ask singer Randy Blythe. Before he was found not liable for the accidental death of a fan at a 2010 concert (the trial ended in 2013), Blythe paid a bail ransom to escape his nightmare imprisonment. Since then, the band has released a documentary (“As The Palaces Burn”) about the ordeal, and Blythe just released a memoir (“Dark Days”) detailing the experience.

But the new wave thrash outfit’s seventh studio album is really what metalheads have been waiting for, especially to hear how Blythe would incorporate the topic. Track “512,” Blythe’s cell number, reveals his attempt to tap into primal, animalistic instincts to survive while imprisoned: “My hands are painted red,” he laments, and “I can’t recognize myself, I think I’m someone else.” “Still Echoes” highlights the haunting history of the prison that still housed a guillotine the Nazis allegedly used in executions: “A thousand heads cut clean across their necks right down the hall from me/The Reich’s relentless blade, thirsty and shining red, still echoes of their screams,” Blythe realizes.

The overt references to his experience end with those two blistering songs--replete with buzzsaw guitars and Chris Adler’s transcendent drumming. Lyrically, “Erase This” is directed toward negative people who drag others down, and “Footprints” rails against tourists who care not for the negative effects they have on nature, especially on Blythe’s beloved Virginia Beach coast.

Other standout tracks include “Embers,” which features Chino Moreno of the Deftones providing soaring backing vocals to counteract Blythe’s growling approach, and “Torches,” a slower-paced song featuring Dillinger Escape Plan’s Greg Puciato on screamo backing vocals.

7/10

- Jason Scales

Album Review: High On Fire's "Luminiferous"

HIGH ON FIRE

*Luminiferous*

(eOne Music)

High On Fire’s seventh album starts where the others left off: “The Black Plot” is driven by galloping drums punctuated by whip crack snare shots behind singer Matt Pike’s gruffly delivered conspiracy theories. At the 3:50 mark, all goes silent, as if the song is over, only to come rushing back all at once with an otherworldly wail from guitar and singer alike. A 90-second face-melting solo commences that eventually fades into the seven-minute “Carcosa,” a slower tempo song that gives the double-bass drum room to pummel.

The nine-song album is full of heavy metal grooves like a post-industrial (or is it prehistoric?) Motorhead. The Oakland band is one of the fiercest three-pieces ever and hasn’t strayed far from its original sound since forming in 2000.

“The Falconist,” with lyrics describing a winged hunter, is the least brutal of the lot, and “Slave The Hive” holds its own among any Bay Area-produced thrash tune. Ending track “The Lethal Charmer” once again displays HOF’s power chord orchestration in long form (pushing nine minutes).

Appearing with Pallbearer at Thalia Hall in Chicago on Aug. 11, 2015. I've got my tickets. See you there?

8/10

-- Jason Scales
Link to published print version in July 2015 issue of Illinois Entertainer magazine: http://www.joomag.com/magazine/illinois-entertainer-july-2015/0925465001435759030?short
Open PDF and navigate to page 28

A Tale of Two Trout Trips

Sometimes the fishing you squeeze into trips taken for other reasons beats the trips you take just to fish.

A flooded Pere Marquette

Trout trip in lower Michigan 

During the weekend of April 10-11, 2015, four friends/co-workers and I traveled to the Huron-Manistee National Forest in Michigan to fish the famous Pere Marquette River during the spring trout season. These are legendary waters considered by fly-fishermen to be perhaps the best in the Midwest--legendary steelhead waters that rival Western trout waters. On the drive to the Baldwin River Lodge in Baldwin, Michigan, as we passed many other rivers, including the Rogue, it became instantly clear that recent torrential rains had caused all rivers to overflow their banks by feet, to the point that all the surrounding woodland was flooded. It was nearly Biblical.

But when you commit to a trip, you follow through by giving it the best effort anyway. On Saturday late-morning, we hit the stretch of water that runs by the campground at Gleason's Landing. This was the best spot to accommodate the three fly-fishermen on the trip and the two spin-casters, including myself. Upriver from the boat launch it is flies only.

We had to wade through flooded timber just to get to where the riverbank ought to have been. A din of frog calls filled the air in these flooded parts. I threw Mepps spinners, a Rat-L-Trap and spoons into the high-and-fast river and only found snags.

Two fly-fishermen I encountered were chest deep in the river, near a large tree-fall, slinging drop-shot rigs to the opposite bank. No one I talked to that day caught anything.  After a few hours at Gleason’s Landing, we tried further upstream at some clay banks. The two spin-casters, me included, tied on flies to be in regulation. There was less available space to fish there, and more fisherman vainly trying their best, lining the bank. I gave it a minimal effort, as none of us really expected to hook up with anything.

We all had fun anyway and took away hopes for returning a different time when Mother Nature wasn’t so devastating.

For the two nights we stayed in town, we dined at a classic backwoods dive called Barski and at the Government Lake Lodge restaurant, a classic in-town Northwoods dive.

A Falls River brook trout

UP brook trout

The burial of my Uncle Mike--who tragically died last November--brought me to L’Anse, Upper Peninsula, Michigan, May 22-24, 2015. I was unable to attend his funeral the previous fall, so attending the burial was especially important to me. The gathering of family and friends on a rare summer-like day on the southern shore of Lake Superior was bittersweet. After the ceremony at L’Anse cemetery, some of us drove out Skanee Road to Finn’s bar to socialize, eat and collectively share in the loss.

Eventually, my family, some aunts and uncles (siblings of Mike), drove into the hills and back to Grandpa Al’s deer camp, which really was Mike’s charge the last 20 years or so. I saw how he renovated the old cabin, adding a room and an indoor sauna. I hadn’t been to that cabin probably since the late 1980s/early 1990s. It was a good visit, even with the swarms of mosquitos and rash of ticks.

That evening, back in L’Anse, I went to the power dam on the Falls River to try for some brook trout. I passed Mike’s empty house on the river to get there and almost parked in the driveway. I wanted to try the trout holes in the river just yards from his back porch. Visions of visiting him at his house and swimming in the river there filled my head. Instead, I parked a ways upriver at the dam and cast Mepps spinners into the froth. Nothing, until I walked downriver and tried a small hole. Bam--a lil’ brook trout hit and I reeled it in. It was just like old times…

Content with one catch-and-release, I went back to the hotel. The next day, before Jill and I and the kids drove to spend the night in Houghton, we walked along the river much further downstream, north of the train bridge and close to where it dumps into Keweenaw Bay. I cast into holes, but had no luck. I saw two fly-fishermen wading upriver and wish I had brought my waders. I also wish I had more time on that river.

Fishing the Falls River power dam in L'Anse

Album review: "Sol Invictus" by Faith No More

FNM's first album since 1997 was worth the wait.

FAITH NO MORE

“Sol Invictus”

(Ipecac)

For alternative music fans of a certain age, there has not been a more anticipated reunion than Faith No More’s recent one: the 10-track album “Sol Invictus” represents the band’s first recording since 1997’s “Album of the Year.”

The pioneers of alternative metal exploded on the scene with the 1989 hit “Epic,” a song that might be solely responsible for spawning bands such as Korn and Limp Bizkit. Try not to hold that against FNM, however, because the band continued to crank out refreshingly original hard rock albums, never pigeonholed into the “nu metal” movement started in the wake of the band’s early success, until they broke apart in 1998.

No matter who the band is, one wonders which effect a reunion album will have, especially after 18 years: the album will either tarnish the legacy left or add to it. Thankfully, “Sol Invictus” does the latter, and more. It’s one of the band’s best ever, vying with 1992’s definitive “Angel Dust” effort.

“Superhero” and “Separation Anxiety” are the most metal of the tracks, and perhaps the most mood-inducing. The first features a trademark FNM keyboard lick that eventually serves as a backbone to a swirling instrumental jam, all while singer Mike Patton repeats: “Leader of men/Leader of men/Leader of men/Will you be one of them?” The overall effect is quite hypnotic. “Separation Anxiety” features a maniacal vocal style and uptempo riffing arranged in such a way as to nearly produce anxiety in the listener. It’s a thrilling experience.

While “Cone of Shame” is a quirky, blusey number, “Matador” is one of the most sprawling, genre-blending track’s of FNM’s career. It starts quietly, dramatically, and builds to soaring outbursts of instrumentation, all while featuring Patton’s split-personality vocal style. Patton is at his best here and sounds as good as ever.

Catch the band on tour while you can this year: Patton and the boys will appear at Chicago’s Riot Fest the weekend of Sept. 11-13, 2015.

9/10

Link to published print version in July 2015 issue of Illinois Entertainer magazine: http://www.joomag.com/magazine/illinois-entertainer-july-2015/0925465001435759030?short
Open PDF and navigate to page 28

Album Review: Soundgarden's "Echo of Miles"

Soundgarden is releasing rare tracks.

SOUNDGARDEN

*Echo Of Miles: The Originals*

(A&M)

When it comes to Seattle grunge heavyweights, Mudhoney was grungier, Nirvana more revered, Pearl Jam more mainstream, but no one was more metal grunge--and therefore Lolla-ready--than Soundgarden. This 14-track offering collects previous recordings that never appeared on a regular studio album, including “Heretic” featuring bassist Hiro Yamamoto, a creative force in the band’s mid- to late-1980 beginnings. “Birth Ritual”--originally on the “Singles” soundtrack--is one of singer Chris Cornell’s most memorable vocal deliveries, and opening track “Heretic” and “HIV Baby”--a gem of a garage-rock, punk/grunge explosion--further reveal him to be one of rock’s most powerful singers. For a full collection of Soundgarden B-sides, the band is releasing on vinyl only six albums-worth of such material, these tracks included, on May 19

6/10

Link to original published version, in the April 2015 issue of Illinois Entertainer magazine

Three craft beer spots reviewed: A Tour of Kalamazoo's Finest

Bells' Brewery, Kalamazoo, Mich., February 2015

I spent the last weekend in February 2015 in Kalamazoo, Michigan, experiencing firsthand why some consider it a craft-beer destination town. A beer tour wasn’t the original reason for the trip, just a pleasant side excursion while accompanying Jill on her business trip (with our 9 and 7 year olds in tow).

First we hit Bell’s Brewery and Eccentric Cafe, among a cluster of mustard colored brick buildings comprising the campus of the revered Midwestern institution, located in the heart of downtown Kalamazoo.

The cafe itself is a comfortable tasting room with counter-service food. A chalkboard with dozens of taps--mainstays as well as small batch brews--hangs on one brick wall, with stained glass featuring outdoor scenes and pop art decorating other walls.  Food and drink orders are taken at the bar, so a line quickly forms. We got a seat at a four-top, and my daughter enjoyed a blackberry Izze soda.

Jill and I shared a flight of tasters of the following:

-Kalamazoo IPA 6%: excellent, and we got a growler of it later.

-Hopslam Double IPA 10%: Very good.

-Roundhouse Imperial Red Ale 7.5%: Very good.

-Mead 8.6%: tasted like a crisp white wine.

-Red Nose ESB 6%: Jill liked it very much.

-Dagger Stout 11.2%: Intense.

For food, we ordered Pulled Pork Tacos to split, and both kids got the grilled cheese. The tacos were build-your-own, with a platter of tender smoked pork and pineapple salsa. There were many other enticing options on the menu (see below).

A second multi-purpose room hosts special events, including a world music festival the weekend we were there, and the outdoor patio--frozen in February--would undoubtedly be a summer hot-spot.

An adjacent building houses the Bell’s brand merch shop, with all the expected T-shirts, hats, stickers, and so forth. That’s where customers can get high-quality growlers with a Grolsch-style cap. Drawback: there are only a couple options for growler fills (we chose Kalamazoo IPA). An extensive home brew supply section rounds out the shop.

One more bit of advice: if you want Oberon, come during the summer.

The beer board at Bell's

The grub at Bell's, side one

The grub at Bell's, side two

I went solo to visit Arcadia Ales Brewery, on the outskirts of town on riverfront property. It boasts a sleek, modern stainless steel look with more natural lighting. Seating is more spread out, and frisbee golf goals dot the dining room (perhaps they are taken outside after winter?).

Food is ordered and paid for at a deli-style counter, separate from the bar. Smoked meats are a specialty here, with an array of sides and other dishes, including kimchi tacos. I thoroughly enjoyed the smoked beef brisket sandwich: it was tender, meaty and had a great smoke flavor.

I ordered a flight of the following tasters:

-ESB: very good

-IPA: solid

-Angler’s Pale Ale: very good

-Porter: OK

-Rapunzel: good

The merch section is in a small corner by the front door, and I didn’t see growlers as an option. A cooler offers six packs of the mainstays, with the option of creating your own variety six-pack, which I elected to do.

The third brewery we hit (the second as a family) was the least impressive of the three, although I would go back to try their food and give their beer another shot. We didn’t order, but the menu looked to be the most extensive, and a full dining room’s gotta mean something good is happening in the kitchen. Gonzo’s BiggDogg Brewery is also the newest, established in the heart of downtown Kalamazoo in 2013, just blocks from Bell’s.

Jill and I split a flight of the following:

-Chords of Winter Wheat Ale 6%

-Dogg Days Ale 5.8%

-Remember the Earl ESB 5.6% (Jill discovered she likes ESBs on this trip)

-Cloak of Darkness Black IPA 8%

Bottom line: We saw at least three other breweries that we didn’t have time to visit. Bell’s may have the most name recognition--and may be the best--but there is more to discover in Kalamazoo.

Gonzo's BiggDogg

Album review: The Melvins' "Hold It In"

 
The Melvins
*Hold It In*
(Ipecac)
There might not be a better melding of bizarre alternative rock bands than the core of the Melvins (King Buzzo and Dale Crover) joining with the guitarist and bassist of the Butthole Surfers (Paul Leary and JD Pinkus). The resulting 12 tracks are (mostly) surprisingly linear and coherent. Who knew it’d take the Surfers to bring the pop sensibilities of the Melvins to the forefront?
“Bride of Crankenstein” is aural cotton candy with its over-fuzzed power chords. Although a collaboration, most songs sound distinctly Melvins, with “The Bunk Up” an instant classic: for seven minutes it transitions from herky-jerky stoner rock to accordion and bass driven carnival music to a groove-heavy ending. 
The Leary-written track “I Get Along (Hollow Moon)” has a distinct Surfers’ rockabilly twang. “Barcelona Horseshoe Pit” and much of the 12-minute “House of Gasoline” are trippy, mind-bending exercises, a la the Surfers’ “Hairway To Steven” efforts from days of yore.
8/10

Link to original publishing, page 38 of March 2015 issue of Illinois Entertainer
Link to YouTube posting of entire album (like it? Go buy it!)